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An orbital is a one-electron wavefunction, usually derived by solving the Schrodinger equation. This tag applies to questions about all forms of orbitals; additionally, questions about the construction and properties of molecular orbitals should be tagged with [molecular-orbital-theory].

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What are the Waves Modeling when Referring to the Atomic Orbitals

Edit: Atomic orbitals For atoms you have a system that is spherically symmetric. Thus, it is most conveniently expressed in spherical coordinates instead of cartesian ones. … $\mathrm{s}$ orbitals are spheres while $\mathrm{p}$ orbitals are dumbbell-shaped (side note: the Spherical Harmonics are complex functions which are rather hard to visualize; the shapes that every chemist …
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4 votes

Resonance stabilization and size of ligand atoms

Another reason is, that the $3 \ce{p}$ or $4 \ce{p}$ orbitals are much more diffuse than the $2 \ce{p}$ orbitals. If you want to read deeper into the topic have a look at: [1] W. Kutzelnigg, Angew. …
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7 votes
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Do electrons only fill 'spin up' first? Or could it start filling 'down spins' first?

No it does not matter whether you start with 'spin up' or 'spin down' electrons as long as you are consistent: If you start filling some orbitals with 'spin up' electrons you will have to keep doing this … for all the orbitals you want to fill. …
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2 votes

Can electrons switch orbitals within a shell?

Firstly, you seem to have a misconception about atomic orbitals and molecular orbitals. … you use these orbitals to form bonds between carbon and, say, the 1s orbitals of four hydrogen atoms thus getting methane $\ce{CH4}$. …
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26 votes
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Why is one lobe of an sp3 hybridized orbital smaller than its other half?

When combined at a given atomic center, any two atomic orbitals add in a vectorial manner. … The mixing of atomic orbitals with different angular momentum quantum number is also controlled by a vectorial addition and leads to various types of hybrid orbitals some examples of which are shown here …
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18 votes
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Why do atoms "want" to have a full outer shell?

You are attaching too much importance to Lewis structures. The 8-electron rule and Lewis structures which are derived from it are only rough guidelines for working out the electronic structure of a co …
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8 votes

Show the vibrational frequency of fluorine molecule anion is much lower than that of fluorin...

You should definitely post the MO diagram of $\ce{F2}$ that you worked out. When trying to solve such a problem you should try to analyse the question as thoroughly as possible to make sure that you c …
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10 votes

Difference between shells, subshells and orbitals

Have a look here: Orbitals that have the same value of the principal quantum number $n$ form a shell. … With orbitals in the context of shells and subshells one usually means atomic orbitals, i.e. two-electron eigenstates of an atom's Hamilton operator which are characterized by the three quantum numbers …
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23 votes
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How can I find the symmetry labels of atomic orbitals in a molecule?

& 1 & -1 & 1 & -1 & 1 & -1 & 1 & -1 & & \\ \mathrm{E_u} & 2 & 0 & -2 & 0 & 0 & -2 & 0 & 2 & 0 & 0 & (x,y) & \\ \hline \end{array}$$ Finally you need to determine the symmetry labels of the p- and d-orbitals … \end{align}$$ The five d-orbitals show the same transformational properties as their quadratic function counterparts and thus they get the symmetry labels, i.e. …
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Difference between actual position of electron and Radial Distribution Probability

\end{align} If you evaluate this integral for the $2\ce{s}$ and $2\ce{p}$ orbitals you get \begin{align} \langle r \rangle_{2\ce{s}} = \langle r \rangle_{2, 0} &= \frac{6 a_{0}}{ Z } \\ \langle …
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2 votes
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Orbital angular momentum

For hydrogen atom, L^2 and Lz can be obtained as eigenvalues for a particular wave function. But that does not completely specify the angular momentum vector. How to get about this problem? Well, …
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71 votes

Why is the 2s orbital lower in energy than the 2p orbital when the electrons in 2s are usual...

I think your question implicates another question (which is also mentioned in some comments here), namely: Why are all energy eigenvalues of states with a different angular momentum quantum number $\e …
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39 votes

What is the inert pair effect?

which in turn leads to a cascade of contractions of those outer s orbitals. … chemical reactions and they are harder to remove via ionization, because the s orbitals' decreased size lessens the orbital overlap with potential reaction partners' orbitals and leads to a lower energy …
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28 votes

When is it true that more nodes equals higher energy?

General case There is indeed a mathematical theorem that deals with the number of nodes an eigenfunction corresponding to a certain eigenvalue can possess. It was laid down by Courant$^{[1, 2]}$ and …
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15 votes
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The effect of hyperconjugation on the stability of alkenes with MO theory

They interact with the filled high-lying neighboring $\ce{C-H}$ or $\ce{C-C}$ $\ce{\sigma}$ bonds in $\pi$-bond-like manner and so from those two fragment orbitals you will get two molecular orbitals … {C=C})$ with $\sigma (\ce{C-X})$, which will be higher in energy then the fragment orbitals. …
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